Preeti - The Young Yogic Healing Wonder!

During my consistent jaunts at the Cubbon Park early Sunday mornings, I often observed a young girl teaching Yoga to a fairly large group of people. She has been doing this for the last 2 1/2 years and I really didn't ever closely watch her as I regularly jogged passed the green stretch she occupied behind the Bandstand. 

But last Sunday, I just happened to stop by and observe her more closely and something fascinated me to a large extent. As I watched her expertly exercising along with the people participating in her free session, I couldn't help cherish the intensity of her love and passion for what she was doing, clearly etched on her face! Very rarely does one happen to observe such dedication and commitment bonded with so much affection. I stood for quite a while observing her till she finished the class and then decided to have a chat with her, to know more about her and what encourages her to do what she was doing.

Preeti hails from Chandigarh and is in her mid-twenties. Her love for Yoga and more importantly Pranayama, was due to an emotional and physical debacle she had faced several years ago. It was through Pranayama and Yoga that she was able to heal herself entirely and it was then that she decided she would, most passionately, heal as many people she could meet who would have had similar pasts, or otherwise.

As we got chatting, I realized with much adoration that Preeti and I held similar views regarding our purpose on Earth and the Powers of the Universe as expressed in my first book: The Sledgehammer’s Edge. She firmly believes, just like everyone else, she was born with a certain purpose decided by the Universe and she realized this soon after she overcame her personal debacle.

She strongly believes in the Power of Love - to Love selflessly and without prejudice! And, through this love, to heal those that needed to be healed. Needless to say, many people have overcome some of their most tasking health conditions just by being with her and attending her classes. In fact, I happened to meet a few of them in the group that morning.

Preeti strongly believes not only in the power of Yoga but more importantly in the power of Pranayama or the manner in which we breathe. She firmly expresses how important it is for everyone to practice Pranayama for at least an hour daily. While most yoga teachers generally revolve exclusively around Yoga exercises, Preeti blends her one hour class with both Pranayama and Yoga most skillfully as I had observed that morning. She considers Pranayama as the soul of Yoga and hence the two cannot be isolated from each other. She also advocates that one should combine Pranayama with Meditation regularly.

Incidentally, Preeti who is a strict Vegan, wakes up at 2.30 am every morning and meditates till dawn. While this may seem quite a stretch for most of us, the result of what she does vividly shows in her physical form and in her exuberance for life!

It was most enjoyable chatting up with Preeti that morning and I can add a thousand more words to this blog about her! But instead, why don’t you drop by on a fresh early Sunday morning at Cubbon Park and discover this young yogic healing wonder yourself!!

Anand K Nair

Leadership & Motivational Speaker. Mentor. Counselor. Author. Educationist. Business Consultant.

Founder,

Anand Nair Leadership Foundation

anand@agnileadership.com

www.facebook.com/anandnairleadershipfoundation

Author of: The Sledgehammer's Edge

The Sledgehammer's Edge

The Sledgehammer’s Edge is a moving story about how one can use the several Powers of the Universe to successfully achieve every dream in one’s life and create amazing masterpieces for the world to enjoy.

It is because we think, we exist and not the other way around. The very content of our thoughts dictate the standards of our existence. We have a choice in every moment of our lives to either be a victim or a winner! The story entwines itself around a young boy whose personal and professional dreams are turned into reality by a man who makes him recognize the inner strength he has by surrendering to the Universe and all its Powers embedded within his inner Being.

This book takes you on a path of realization of the enormous powers that lie within you to be exemplary in every walk of life. Hence, this book is not necessarily entrepreneurial in nature, but deals immensely with the Soul, Mind and Body and how they subtly relate to each other in creating masterpieces in whatever one does, both personally and professionally.

Leadership is not about leading a group of people or an organization to success but living a life delightfully and living it from the very core of one’s inner being without being prejudiced by the fears of the unknown influenced by one’s external experiences.

Written in the simplest form of narrative, this book will tug at your conscience and lead you to believe, just as Raj, our protagonist did in the Powers of The Universe. I have written this book in a simple and uncomplicated language flow so that anyone, across the world who reads it, will be able to understand each and every paragraph crafted by me.

I hoped to emancipate your existence through this book and have faith in the fact that I finally will. 

So download the Kindle vesion and enjoy this journey with me…

Anand K Nair

Leadership & Motivational Speaker. Mentor. Counselor. Author. Educationist. Business Consultant.

Author of: The Sledgehammer's Edge

(Readily available on Amazon Kindle)

Musings of an old Maverick: Cubbon Park - A Kaleidoscope of flora & fauna, fin...

Musings of an old Maverick: Cubbon Park - A Kaleidoscope of flora & fauna, fin...: Cubbon Park. Sunday  0600 hrs.   .  Bliss and harmony combined in an area of approximately 190 acres - once over 300 acres i...

Cubbon Park - A Kaleidoscope of flora & fauna, fine art performances, fitness freaks and CEOs!

Cubbon Park. Sunday 0600 hrs. . 

Bliss and harmony combined in an area of approximately 190 acres - once over 300 acres in size but forcibly shrunk by rapid urbanization.  For those living in Bangalore including several corporate 'big-wigs' (preferring to talk  business informally in an open fresh environment instead of during Saturday night cocktail circuits...finding them too cliche and meant only for the uninitiated!) flock every morning to the pristine offerings of this natural park. 


Intricately shaped trees, centuries old, interspersed with a wide variety of plants and flowers, rare winged birds, squirrels, butterflies (the list could go on almost endlessly), never cease to serenely calm the mind, body & soul of every walker, jogger and casual visitor to this wondrous green abode. Just a few kilometers of an engaging walk through its meandering pathways can revive the most tired or stressed individual from the aftermath of the week gone by.

But these are not only the offerings that this park engulfs you with. 

It also offers to a plethora of people of various shapes, sizes and ages to work out their bodies to the rhythm of a trainer and his music, free Yoga classes conducted by those devoted to the cause of good health & vitality or simply setting up a net and playing badminton with friends or picking up a cycle and lazily biking around...or just doing your thing by working out all by yourself over large expanses of greenery!  


















But for me, the most fascinating contribution that this awesome place offers is an absolutely enthralling and captivating set of performances executed by young artists involved in fine arts and folk music on the Bandstand from 0600 hrs to 0830 hrs! 

I can assure you, that this is one visual treat for the senses that will effortlessly prove uplifting and joyful...something that can rarely be experienced by those who never flock towards the Cubbon Park on an early Sunday morning!! 

Professional Musings of an Old Maverick! (Concluding Part)

Business Development ‘Gladiators’ – Triggering the real YOU!

Part – X

Professional Attributes to become awe-inspiring Business Development Gladiators!

Welcome back to my world as we take the concluding journey for all you Business Development Gladiators!

On this journey we will explore the last three professional attributes of Executive Essentials for all BDEs: Presentation; Negotiation & Closing.

Presentation:

The Presentation stage normally would constitute your second meeting with your client. This is an important stage as it will now connect you with your client, more closely, on a solutions providing mode. The contents of your presentation would, quite obviously, be based on the probing that you would have done during your previous meeting. Hence, your presentation (in most cases a power point) should begin with a short description of your organization and its strong presence in the market. Next you need to highlight concerns that your client had expressed during your last meeting. Subsequently, you need to start highlighting your product as a solutions provider to his concerns.

It is very important for you to understand at this stage of your presentation that you should only depict accurately how your product can be a solutions provider for your client BASED ONLY on his concerns. Don’t go much beyond this even if your product can do more. Remember, information should be given on a need to know basis and not otherwise. Too much of information can confuse your client and will therefore necessitate another series of meetings which could delay closures!

Always begin your product presentation (after having highlighted your client’s concerns) with his most conversed concern. Try to epicenter your product presentation around it for a while. Then start building his other related concerns around it and provide solutions. There must always be a smooth continuity to your presentation based on your past probings. Don’t jump from one point to another unrelated point. It will not make your conversation with your client seamless!

Negotiation:

When you reach this stage you should have, by now, become quite familiar with your client: enough to be able to have a conversation on an equal level foundation. Reaching this level of a relationship is very important at the negotiation stage because much of the conversation will be a ‘cat and mouse’ play between you and your client who will continuously value the product’s solution providers with its final price offered. At this point your client will take you through a natural process of bargaining on the price. It happens in every deal a BDE does and hence is unavoidable!

But a powerful BDE could make this negotiating stage a winner for himself or herself if the Presentation stage would have been well detailed and effectively explained. If this has been achieved, the very superior core values of the product as an ideal solutions provider for the client will deter the client from overly fussing over the price!

Closing:

This stage is the easiest challenge to overtake, actually speaking! Most BDEs have an inane fear of this particular stage wherein they feel that, at the last moment, something could go drastically wrong and all their hard work may get wasted at the last juncture of actually collecting the order.

This is a stage most feared by only those BDEs who have inadequately handled the previous stages as discussed in my previous blog parts. As a BDE myself, this stage was never a challenge but an opportunity to explore several areas to build up a permanent relationship with my client. I never viewed this phase as a ‘life and death’ situation to collect the purchase request from the client. Instead, I would use this stage to further fortify my relationship with my client by offering to assist in taking his products to the market or giving him references for his BDEs to follow up with as an advantage to his organization or building up a strong after sales schedule, with immediate effect, for the products sold to him by me. For me this was a phase which I always looked forward to wherein I could impress him as a hardcore professional who was absolutely different from the rest: a World Class Gladiator!

I do hope you enjoyed reading the entire series of blogs I very especially crafted for all of you. This is the concluding part of the series and if any one of you would like to know more on how to become Awe-Inspiring BDEs, please do leave a comment below.

While this journey ends here, I will be embarking on a new one next week called “The Art of Effective Business Networking!” Do join me on this journey, too…

Ciao for now J

Anand K Nair

Leadership & Motivational Speaker. Mentor. Counselor. Author. Educationist. Business Consultant.

Founder,

Anand Nair Leadership Foundation

AGNI Leadership Initiatives

www.facebook.com/anandnairleadershipfoundation

www.facebook.com/AGNILeadership/

Author of: The Sledgehammer's Edge

Professional musings of an Old Maverick - Part IX

Business Development ‘Gladiators’ – Triggering the real YOU!

Part – IX

Professional Attributes to become awe-inspiring Business Development Gladiators!

Welcome back to my world!

In our previous journey we had talked about how important it was for BDEs to carefully plan and prepare before they decide to meet their clients. This, as explained earlier, would make that big difference between embarking on a very long term relationship with your client or being shown the exit door!

On this journey, we will explore the next two Professional Attributes: The Introduction and Probing.

 The Introduction:

This is when you get to meet your client for the first time. Needlessly to say, the Introduction is the first step towards building up a relationship with your client and needs to be taken very seriously. You will be trying to traverse a ground that you will have to finally shape from initial familiarity to bold professional bondage. And this depends majorly on how well prepared you are to meet the client (refer previous blog: Part VIII).

Please don’t ignore the old saying: The first impression is the last impression! If you are unable to impress your client in the very first few moments of your meeting, it could well end the relationship permanently. Here are a few hints to impress:

1.  Attire: Do not where any attire that is remotely outlandish. You aren’t headed for a party! Wear simple business outfits that enhance your image as a professional. Your face is the first thing your client is going to see. Keep your hair combed back neatly; your eyes warmly expressive and wear a broad reassuring friendly SMILE!

2. Body Language: Don’t meet your client with a put-on swagger or looking like you’re just about to enter a boxing ring! Walk up to him with measured, unhurried steps steeped in confidence. Shake his hand warmly while introducing yourself. Hand him your business card. Look into his eyes when speaking to him and not furtively around the room. Wait till he requests you to sit down. Don’t grab a chair right away. And don’t forget that SMILE!

3.  Conversation: Don’t attempt to get sociable immediately. Don’t rush it. If your conversation is well measured, it will eventually happen. Instead, briefly tell him about yourself and the work you do. Be precise. You are not about to write a lengthy essay. Eventually introduce him to your organization and then let him begin asking the questions. Let him do most of the talking hereafter. Don’t forget: you are a solutions provider and unless you don’t discover what your client’s challenges are, you will not be able to offer solutions. So it’s imperative you train yourself to be a GOOD LISTENER. And keep occasionally SMILING!

4.  Respectful: This is important. Always give your client a strong feeling of respect for who he is. Everyone warms up when they are respected for who they are. Self-Respect is something that naturally exists within all of us and we unconsciously need it never to be insulted. Disrespect can switch a positive relationship to a negative one as quickly as you could snap your fingers!

Once you have positively introduced yourself and your organization and are enjoying a good conversation with your client it is time to begin to probe.

Probing:

Many BDEs believe that probing is an art. I don’t think so. As human beings we are naturally inquisitive and hence good ‘probers’! So what is ‘arty’ about it? But yes, we need to be cautious in terms of how much to probe by curtailing our levels of inquisitiveness as we proceed probing our clients. An over-excess of it can be detrimental to all honest efforts in probing.

Probing is a very sensitive thing to do. And this may be a reason why most BDEs call it an ‘Art’. When trying to understand the present challenges your client is facing and the reasons why he believes that your product can plug it all, keep your conversation around the most salient features of your product and your understanding of how it can benefit your client by carefully listening to his challenges.

At this juncture, I would advise all BDEs to view ‘LISTENING’ as an art instead of ‘probing’ as one! Most BDEs I have come across get so enthusiastic about their product explanations that they shift from genuine listening to uncontrolled lecturing at the drop of a hat during a client discussion. Never forget: you are a solutions provider and if you don’t listen carefully or patiently, there are no solutions you will be able to provide with your product to your client.

Next, make notes as you speak with your client. Make a note of every important point he stresses on. This has two advantages: One, he knows you are listening to him attentively enough to note down every concern of his. And two, these notes will help you create a rocking presentation on how your product can fill the gaps he has just expressed during your next product presentation or negotiation meeting with him.

Remember that probing for information from your client should always be done fearlessly and precisely. After all, that is the reason why your client has decided to meet with you. He has a concern and you have a solution. It really is that simple!

Ciao for now! See you all next Monday when we journey on to understand how to give a world class presentation on your second meeting with your client as Business Development Gladiators!!

Anand K Nair

Leadership & Motivational Speaker. Mentor. Counselor. Author. Educationist. Business Consultant.

Founder,

Anand Nair Leadership Foundation

www.facebook.com/anandnairleadershipfoundation

Author of: The Sledgehammer's Edge

Professional musings of an Old Maverick - Part VIII

Business Development ‘Gladiators’ – Triggering the real YOU!

Part – VIII

Professional Attributes to become awe-inspiring Business Development Gladiators!

Welcome back to my world!

As we journey on we will now explore the Professional Attributes that combine with your Personal Attributes, we chugged through last time, to become ‘Awe-Inspiring’ and result oriented Business Development Gladiators! We will proceed to practically understand what Business Development is all about and how we effectively go about the business of taking the Organization’s products to its deserving customers. We will try and cover every aspect of the chain of events that need to be carefully understood from Preparation to Closure and beyond!

The Professional Attributes of a BDE are several and actually form a chain from beginning to end. Hence, it is very important to individually understand, in depth, each of the attributes as they are interlinked with each other in a manner that is absolutely seamless and continuous.  But what are the attributes?

Let’s observe the picture below carefully:

If you observe the above picture judiciously you will be able to understand where I’m coming from. Right from Planning and Preparation to Closure, the Professional Attributes of a world class BDE must exist within one self, right from the beginning of your career till its very end! And it must not merely exist there; but be continuously honed, like the edge of an axe, every moment of your existence as a Business Development Gladiator!

Plan / Prepare:

Business Development is a highly planned activity. Nothing is adhoc here! Most of us tend not to either plan or prepare ourselves to achieve what is expected of us by our organization and therefore, most often, we miserably fail. And when we do, we tend to blame everything ceaselessly: from the product to the market forces. What we fail to do is actually guilt ourselves for a lack of adequate planning and preparation.

1.  Become ‘one’ with your Product: BDEs are not just mere sales people selling products, but solution providers. Effective BDEs plug gaps that exist where their clients are concerned. To do this, you must be absolutely aware of every feature of your product both practically and technically. Your understanding of your product should be so unique that when, questioned of its features and what they efficiently do, you should be able to answer without batting an eyelid! Study each of the products features and rate how much it could possibly influence the client’s requirement. Adopting this simple evaluation technique will give you an understanding of which features of the product needs to be talked about at length and which can be avoided for the time being.

2.  Become ‘one’ with your Client: Remember you are a ‘solutions provider’ and hence you need to carefully research two important spheres:

  Ø Who could be your prospective client? Don’t sell coal to Newcastle. There is an           abundance of coal there! Be realistic in this sphere of research and clearly identify         your target clients. Once you have done that, research the gaps that possibly could        exist in your client’s operations and how your product could ultimately plug them.        You may not reach a 100% accurate conclusion, but at least you would be mentally       prepared with some solution providing ideas which you could talk about confidently.

  Ø Knowing as much about the prospective client identified by you is very important.       Carefully educate yourself on who you will be soon meeting. The client’s habits and     interests; Qualifications; Past experiences; whatever possible information you can         obtain on your client. It will greatly contribute to the content of your conversation         while enhancing the quality of your discussions when you finally meet with your           client.

3.  Become ‘one’ with Yourself: Becoming ‘one’ with yourself is all about tapping the immense reserves of ‘Self-Confidence’ that exists in you. If you have become ‘one’ with your Product and Client, I don’t see a reason why you can’t, quite effortlessly, become ‘one’ with Yourself! Becoming ‘one’ with yourself is very important because, as I said earlier, you are not just selling a product, but providing a solution. You should confidently probe for challenges and gaps that your client is presently experiencing when in conversation with him. The first meeting with a client is always a very critical one because it could either lead to a long lasting relationship or a quick exit out of his office!

Always meticulously plan and prepare for your first meeting with your client. Practice a product presentation and keep revising all the research work you have done on both the product and the client. This will give you immense confidence to go beyond just the initial meeting and actually take a long and successful journey with your client.

Ciao for now! See you all next Monday when we journey on to understand how to effectively introduce yourselves as Business Development Gladiators when you first meet with your client…

Anand K Nair

Leadership & Motivational Speaker. Mentor. Counselor. Author. Educationist. Business Consultant.

Founder,

Anand Nair Leadership Foundation

www.facebook.com/anandnairleadershipfoundation

Author of: The Sledgehammer's Edge

Professional musings of an Old Maverick - Part VII

Business Development ‘Gladiators’ – Triggering the real YOU!

Part – VII

Personal Attributes to become awe-inspiring Business Development Gladiators!

Welcome back to my world!

As we journeyed last week, I had emphasized the importance of two attributes that need to be inculcated within you to become awe-inspiring Business Development Gladiators: Personal Attributes and Professional Attributes. As we journey today we will explore the importance of Personal attributes for your benefit.

But before we do that, let’s understand who we are as Business Development Executives or ‘Gladiators’. As each one of us knows, Business Development is not a career span for the weak-hearted! It requires people like you and me who are strong willed, less prone to being over emotional, have limitless abilities to handle pressure and unquestionably physically fit. And therefore, very especially for the BDE, the period of ‘6 to 9’ as discussed in my previous blog (‘Triggering’ You to become awe-inspiring Business Development Gladiators! – Part VI) is very essential for peak performance during ‘9 to 6’! A mind and body that can easily disrupt disruptiveness can only be borne out of a healthy exposure and experience between ‘6 to 9’ of your existence. Hence, pay attention to each of the moments that exist in this timeframe. Take absolute advantage of it and vitalize deep within yourselves an unbreakable power to take on the stresses and pressures that each one of us will have to endure as BDEs. And the final reward? 90% of Chief Executive Officers across the world were BDEs when they plunged into our kind of an arena!!

Now then, what are the Personal Attributes important for all of us to heighten our performance over the years as BDEs? Let’s closely look at the pic below:

To cut short a long list of personal attributes touted by several management gurus across the globe, I have found just four of them adequate enough as a BDE myself:

1.     Belief

2.     Commitment

3.     Attitude

4.     Passion

Belief:

We all know that nothing can ever be achieved without BELIEF. And yet the very word ‘Belief’ is so confusing! What really is ‘belief’? What are we supposed to ‘believe’ in? How do we inculcate ‘belief’ in our minds and thoughts? More importantly: how do we relate to ‘belief’?

Let’s proceed to unravel ‘Belief’. Belief is nothing but a sincere part of you that resonates with your ‘Purpose’. A ‘Purpose’ that you feel, deep within you, that will fulfill you and make you feel you have actually achieved something beautifully awe-inspiring.  Hence, more vividly defined: ‘Belief’ is a wondrous path connecting You and your Inner Being to a ‘Purpose’ which will be ultimately gratifying!

Now you may, as all inquisitive BDEs like me, would inquire: What are we supposed to ‘believe’ in? Believe in just 3 things. I, Me and Myself and to hell with all the shinga-linga-dingas almost every other management guru preaches. Am I sounding egoistic?! Hell no!! I’m just laying it on the table for you exactly the way I felt about ‘Belief’ when I first discovered it. Trust me: You and only YOU are the creator of your own destiny and thus ‘Belief’ begins and ends with you. So believe in yourself. Believe in the fact that you are made so beautifully perfect that you can take on any number of challenges, no matter how intense, and turn them into remarkable opportunities! Each one of us was created by the Universe to do much bigger things in life than we can imagine. Unfortunately, the majority of us does not know this and hence remain mediocre throughout our lives. We were never meant to be MEDIOCRE. We were meant to be high-octane PERFORMERS! Connect with your Inner Being. Think from a higher level of consciousness. And lead every moment of your life towards creating astounding masteries with whatever purpose you have chosen.

Commitment:

Once your belief is strongly aligned with your purpose, committing yourself to achieve the ultimate bottom line is, quite obviously, the next sequence of a personal attribute. Commitment evokes a very strong sense of intention, focus and delivery.

I recall when I was a young BDE myself, the organization that I worked for those days was in need of a Tagline for itself. They threw open a competition to award anyone who could conjure up a tagline for them and would be rewarded if chosen. I thought deeply of what the company’s offerings were to its several clients. How I had connected my belief in myself and the products I was handling to my purpose of fulfilling my sales targets. And then I came up with a tagline: ‘We commit to deliver and deliver our commitments!’ Needless to say, I won the competition!!

If you had to carefully study my tagline entry, you will discover that you can only make a commitment once you have strongly aligned your beliefs with the purpose. And it is only when this happens that you can make a commitment to deliver. This is why I so easily thought of the tagline I submitted to my Organization. Remember, you can only make a commitment once you have aligned your beliefs to the ‘purpose’ seamlessly.

Attitude:

Attitude is a subject that has been much talked about right from my days in school and throughout every board meeting or annual sales meeting I have attended as a professional. And the only sentence that remained largely hyped was: ‘Always remain positive!’  Great…but how? Every time my colleagues and I were dressed down by our seniors, positive attitude always seemed to disappear out of the window from all sides!

Quite frankly, ‘Attitude’ is a very complex and dynamic thing. In my opinion there are no good or bad attitudes. If you have carefully journeyed with me through the initial stages when I talked about the Power of Awareness, Being in the NOW and connecting with your Inner Being you would not require an explanation of what really attitude is all about. However, in a nut shell, Attitude is not about being ‘Positive’ but being ‘Corrective’. Attitude is a corrective mental reaction to external stimuli and not retaliation to it. As long as attitude is corrective it will always be productive.

Passion:

Finally, what is Passion?  Passion is the emotional quotient that ignites all your Powers Within to assist you in creating awe-inspiring masteries in whatever you have chosen to do. If your beliefs are deeply aligned with your purpose; your commitment to deliver is seeped with self-confidence and your attitude is highly corrective; all you will now need is the passion, flowing readily in you, to successfully turn your thoughts and desires into reality no matter what the challenges that may lie ahead!

On our next journey we will discover the Professional Attributes that combine with the above Personal Attributes to lead you on a path of becoming amazing Business Development Gladiators!

Ciao for now till we meet next Monday again J

Anand K Nair

Leadership & Motivational Speaker. Mentor. Counselor. Author. Educationist. Business Consultant.

Founder,

Anand Nair Leadership Foundation

www.facebook.com/anandnairleadershipfoundation

Author of: The Sledgehammer's Edge